It is nothing unusual to collect the funds for the Hull Insurance from the relevant insurers. Most policies say something like "when an aircraft has disappeared and not been seen for a period of at least 48 hours" insurers will pay the agreed hull value. In doing so they will take any rights of salvage over the aircraft, thus if it were to be found in one peice it would be insurers property to dispose of how they saw fit.
Remembering the aircraft is not owned by MAS, therefore any funds will be owed to the lessor of this aircraft.
The bigger issue will be the SAR costs, as has already been said, the AF SAR costs were $40m, in this loss searching in so many places the costs could exceeed $40m, most airline insurance policies will cover SAR but with a limit of about $10m leaving the airline to foot bill.